Climb
by elesii
Summary: He awoke from a nightmare. She's an awfully light sleeper. It's an odd combination, but for some reason it works.


Alm couldn't sleep.

His eyes were cracked open as he stared up, the faded cloth of the tent greeting him with darkness as he was pulled from his nightmare. The front of his shirt was drenched in sweat, staining it a darker colour. His hair was soaked, and his hands were clammy.

He coughed. Once, twice, before he slowly, groggily got up onto his rear, rubbing at his head as he tried to shake away the grasp of terror on his brain. He took deep breaths, feeling his heartbeat decelerate. Slower. Slower.

Soon, his heart was back to normal and his breathing was steady, the cold air brushing at his sweat. He sighed in relief, feeling the sense of dread fade away.

But the damage had been done. He was awake, and there wasn't any way to say or convince himself otherwise. He sighed, leaning back to prop himself on his arms, careful not to disturb his tentmate- Gray snored louder than usual, as if to prove his presence to him. Then he shifted, as if he were accentuating said presence.

Yet it was quiet.

Gray's snoring did nothing to mask the lack of sound in their campsite. Granted, it was to be expected at halfway into the night, yet it did nothing to appease his loneliness and apprehension.

Alm sighed as he lay back down and closed his eyes, trying his best to go back to sleep; they had to march tomorrow, and it wouldn't do him any good to fall behind when it was so cold outside. He shivered slightly as a cold gust of wind blew through the semi-opened tent flap and chilled his skin. He felt his teeth chatter, and he heard Gray groan uncomfortably before shifting around once more. He felt his skin, covered in half-dried sweat, clam up, yet he tried to ignore all of it. He had to sleep.

He had to sleep.

He remained like that for about fifteen more minutes. He tossed and he turned, trying to find the right combination of positioning and fatigue to pull him back into the dreamscape, but no success was going to be had- he was fighting a losing battle, and he knew it. His eyes wouldn't keep themselves shut- his irises bulged in their sockets even with his eyelids pulled over them. Eventually, they forced his eyelids opened and stared up at the expanse of the tent again.

With a loud groan (but not loud enough to wake up Gray) he sat up, tossing his meager blanket to the side as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Fumbling for some sort of cloak, he grabbed a small, thin piece of brown cloth, staring at it before he shrugged and tossed it around his frame, before standing up to leave his tent.

He doubted that he'd be out for long anyway.

* * *

The rustling noise woke her up.

Coaxing her from the dreamscape was the noise of someone stirring about in their camp. It was so subtle that she didn't even know she could be awoken by a noise as soft as it, but she'd always prided herself on being the lightest sleeper out of their ragtag quartet, and tonight she would be upholding her streak.

Faye didn't open her eyes, trying to ignore the sound as the owner of the noise messily rustled about somewhere in their campsite, throwing around leaves and snapping twigs. Frowning in her slumber, she tossed to one side and covered her open ears with her blanket, trying to mask the sound, to no avail.

She grit her teeth and tossed some more, trying to ignore the sound. As if the sounds would pay her any mercy.

 _Thump thump thump_ , the sounds mocked her attempt at slumber and wheedled her out of her fervor. She grumbled silently at the loss of her rest, but resignedly sat up; it's not like she would be able to ignore it if she tried, anyway.

As her thoughts jogged to life, so did her imagination; what dare lurk outside? Something harmless, like an unrested comrade, or merely a few stones in the wind? Enemy soldiers? Or perhaps even those dreaded Terrors? The thought jolted her to life, and her heartbeat began to accelerate.

Were they being encircled at that moment, ready to be slaughtered? Or was she simply just overthinking everything, and all was well in the night?

She didn't know, and the suspense would kill her long before any blade would.

Holding her breath, she slowly pushed herself from her blankets, careful not to wake Clair (the girl needed the rest after her harsh ordeal in the fortress, locked away and bruised and battered beyond all belief. Faye wouldn't be the one to disturb her) as she stirred away from the resting blonde.

Fumbling for her bow, she felt her fingers wrap around the thin, lean wood, and she relaxed slightly at the comfort of being armed, pulling her quiver closer to her simultaneously. Quick as a flash, she had the quiver strapped to her back, one arrow already pulled free, nocked and prepared to let fly.

She pursed her lips, inhaling a breath of relaxation; it wouldn't do her good to lose her cool now, she needed to remain calm. Calmly, she reached for a small, yet thick cloak; she'd felt the cool winds blowing through the tent flaps, and she wanted to ensure that she wouldn't freeze to death should the alarm be false and entirely in her mind.

And, as she wrapped the small cloak around her torso, she realized that she'd run out of excuses to remain inside. Nothing could stop her from satiating her curiosity, and nothing kept her from launching into possible peril.

She'd have to confront the noise by herself.

 _May Mila preside over me._

And with a deep breath and a quick prayer, she quickly slipped into the night.

* * *

He didn't realize how cold it would be.

Alm shivered slightly, watching his breath dissipate into the cold, dark night as the wisps of smoke faded into oblivion. To him, the temperature seemed to have dropped at least four degrees; enough for him to start shivering despite the relatively warm climate earlier that day.

He snorted in slight indignance at the surprise temperature drop, feeling the cool air warm itself in his nostrils as he inhaled: a sharp, slightly stimulating sensation that he didn't savor. Instead, he shivered slightly more in sour acceptance. _Oh well_ , he thought to himself in dull resignation. _At least it's nice out tonight, in a manner of speaking._

As if to confirm his thoughts, he stared out at the moon, which stood bright and proud in the middle of the night sky, its off-white hue the biggest contrast to the dark blue-black inky blanket that was their sky. It was, for lack of a better word, _beautiful_.

If only he could properly enjoy it, not shivering maniacally as he stared.

With another sigh of resignation, he trudged onwards in his slight morose, carelessly stepping on dead twigs and rustling dead leaves as he made his way to a sturdy, tall tree, his sense of nostalgia filling him ever so slightly as he slowed to a crawl in front of the dark, stout cedar.

He always liked to climb trees. They were a large source of comfort for him, even though it started off as a spontaneously-formed idea that materialized in his brain whilst escaping one of his grandfather's rampage of anger. However, even he didn't anticipate that his desperation tactic of climbing a tree would quickly grew into something with much more… mental solace, as much as it had physical solace. It was easy to escape your emotions with a tree: just climb up high enough, and not even the worst of your problems would be able to reach you when you ascended to a sturdy branch and simply stared at the view that the height would allow him to see. It was foolproof to his eleven-year-old mind, and he quickly picked it up to lock away in his habits for the next long years.

Alm smiled fondly at the memories, particularly of the orange tree that was planted on Tobin's front yard: it was so large that it eclipsed most of the buildings in Ram Village, and it was the perfect spot to escape from everything he needed to. Plus, Tobin's parents were fond of him, so they allowed him up the tree as much as Alm wanted!

The nostalgia filled his heart, pumping warmed blood through his body as he felt the smile worm onto his face.

It had been way too long since he'd last climbed a tree. Perhaps at some point, he simply felt like he didn't need to escape anymore. Or perhaps at some point, he simply forgot about it altogether. But, in either case, he couldn't quite remember the last time he ascended a tree of some kind, in order to just… get away from the rest of the world, and to think.

He didn't realize he was raising his arms to the lowest branches until he heard the shaky voice stammer behind him.

"T-turn around. S-slowly."

His blood ran cold. Colder than the temperature that he bathed in, and colder than the dim glow of the moonlight. Was there someone else in their camp? Someone that nobody knew of? He was unarmed- he'd left his sword back in his tent, stowed away safely just out of reach on the left side of his sleeping accommodations. Could he even take on someone without his sword?

"N-now!"

Shakily, he complied. His heart pounded in his ribcage, pounded in his ears, pounded in his chest. He felt the adrenaline coursing through his veins, looking for something, _anything,_ to defend himself with. He wondered, somewhere in the depths and recesses of his mind, if this was how he was to die- murdered by an assassin who had snuck into their camp. What a careless way to die- but no, he couldn't worry about that. He had to figure out a way to alert the rest of his friends in time.

Thankfully, none of those hypothetical situations would ever come to pass. As he was turning, he heard the second voice gasp in shock.

"A-alm?!"

He recognized her voice. Her distinctive, girlish voice that nobody could ever emulate. He recognized the squeal of surprise. In fact, Kliff had replicated it not too long ago by pretending to drop a bug onto the nape of her neck- something that nearly caused Kliff to lose his head in retaliation. He recognized his name, spoken with such familiarity that it could only, _really_ be one person.

Tentatively, he spoke her name. "Faye? What are you doing here?"

His village friend sighed an anxious sigh of relief, lowering her arms as she slouched over and relaxed her posture. Faye's head remained tilted up to stare at Alm, and the green-haired boy saw the glimmer of fear and terror in her eyes, barely illuminated by the shimmer of stars and the moon.

"I heard something, so I wanted to check it out. Were you moving around? I heard someone rustling and moving, and I thought it might've been an ambush," She said shakily, her body still shaking from either the cold, the relief, or maybe even a mix of both.

 _Oh, right. I forgot how light of a sleeper she is._ He dimly remembered in the throes of his mind as he smiled reassuringly to calm her down. "Yeah, that was me. Sorry about that, I wasn't thinking about what I was doing," He chuckled slightly, inwardly berating himself. _You have to be more careful!_ his mind screamed at him erstwhile.

Faye smiled slightly; a tense, uncomfortable smile that told him that she was going to be fine- she'd need a few moments to collect herself, but she would be fine.

So that's what he did. The two of them remained in silence for a while as Faye collected herself, picking up the wiry, unstable pieces that she called her nerves. He watched in interest and concern as the possible situations she'd imagined began to relax and release its taut grip from her nerves and her imagination. Once he was sure she was well enough to hold a conversation (the smile slowly turning into her neutral expression was a key giveaway), he spoke once more.

"So…" He trailed off, realizing somewhere in his mind that he wasn't really sure what to talk about. Faye, realizing his conundrum, decided to help.

"What are you doing out so late?" She inquired somewhat meekly, drawing her cloak closer around herself. Alm chuckled nervously.

"Eheh, I woke up. I had a nightmare," He said, trying his best to dismiss the nightmare as something stupid for fear that she would make fun of him. Instead, she smiled softly, glancing down at the ground.

"Bad, I'm guessing?"

Alm nodded in response. "Yeah, pretty bad, I guess," He waved off in as nonchalant a manner as possible, cursing himself as the awkward silence began to preside over them both. Faye nodded in understanding, yawning soon afterwards as she felt the sluggish fatigue take over her once more.

As they remained in the encumbering silence, Alm couldn't feel more awake. His senses were wired up, and they were all firing as often as they would if he was awake in the middle of the day. He noticed as Faye's head bobbed up and down. He noticed as she slowly clasped and fumbled her hands together, gripping both over the bow that she'd taken to at the start of their journey. He noticed as she began mumbling to herself- a sure sign she was ready to go back to sleep, or at least to her tent.

But, for some reason that he couldn't fathom, the words came out before he could pause to think about it.

"Hey, do you want to climb this tree with me?"

With a grunt, Faye pulled the rest of her body onto the branch, steadying herself against the trunk of the tree once she was certain she wouldn't fall off. She exhaled in fatigue, wiping away the small beads of sweat that had formed just underneath her fringe.

Alm smiled at her from his position, sitting on the very same creaky branch just beside her, and Faye felt her heart flutter slightly. After a short respite, Alm turned back to stare up at the moon. She followed his gaze confusedly, her eyes traveling the invisible line that led from Alm's blue-grey irises to the large, off-white ball in the sky. She smiled at the sight.

"It's beautiful, huh?"

Faye almost didn't catch him whisper softly to himself as he stared at the moon, as entranced by its bewitching gleam as she was. She just managed otherwise, however, and nodded twice in understanding as she slowly processed his near-soundless comments.

"Yeah, it is. Extraordinary," She breathed out, one of Kliff's more extravagant words coming to her tongue as she awed at the celestial body. It never ceased to amaze her how powerfully assuming it stood in the sky, a booming presence despite its small stature. Alm laughed slightly, but it quickly tapered off into a comfortable silence as he chose not to respond.

They sat like that for a little while longer, the only noises being of either Alm or Faye adjusting themselves slightly. However, it wasn't long before Faye felt the need to continue talking, if only to try and ease Alm into a sense of comfort she wasn't sure he had. "It feels just like back in Ram Village, huh? All of us trying to climb that huge tree in Tobin's front yard," She said conversationally, tilting her head down to stare at her steadying hand.

" _Pfft,_ "

Her head quickly shot back up as she heard him chuckle, a slight blush of embarrassment beginning to flush her cheeks as she shot an accusatory glance at him. To her surprise, she was met not with an impish, foxy grin, but a nostalgic smile. A flicker of panic flashed across his face as he realized how concerned Faye looked, and he waved one hand, keeping the other firmly on the tree branch.

"Oh, uh, sorry," He said, "It's just… I was remembering that too, earlier. Back when you had your bow trained on me," He explained, and Faye blushed an even brighter shade of scarlet as she remembered her pitiful attempt at being stern and intimidating. She gently shoved at Alm, making sure not to actually push him off the branch. Alm yelped as he felt himself pitch slightly, before he laughed again as he balanced once more.

"Sorry, sorry," he chuckled, mirth tearing at his eyes. He wiped it away, turning his hand over and staring at the odd birthmark on his hand. "But still. I find it kinda funny that we both thought of the same tree, y'know?" He explained, shifting himself on the tree yet again. Faye rolled her eyes, yet smiled nonetheless.

"I guess you _could_ find it kind of funny…" She conceded, trailing off into silence once more. Alm jokingly pumped his fist in the air, and Faye let a chuckle slip from her mouth at the gesture as her spontaneous nighttime companion settled back into his relaxed sitting position.

They sat in silence once more, neither of them mustering up the courage to talk. Despite this, however, Alm felt comfortable. Calmed. At peace. It was a different kind of silence, very unlike the suffocating sensation that strangled him when he awoke from his sleep.

With the comforting silence gracing his body, he slouched and leaned back, ensuring his centre of gravity wouldn't push him off the branch before letting his gaze sweep across the sky, drinking in the details of every star that glimmered in the night sky, the same off-white hues dotting the sky in small clusters that, if he were to look at close enough, could form pictures and images. He watched as they danced in place, affixed yet twirling in their predetermined spot on the endless canvas of blue-black.

All of a sudden, he felt Faye jolt with surprise, her sudden movement shaking the tree branch erratically. He felt himself slip slightly, and rapidly reattached his arms to the branch to steady himself.

"Woah, Faye, calm down-!" He yelped in surprise, feeling a surge of horror as they rocked up and down on the normally steady branch. Faye seemingly remembered that they were still located on a branch decently high in the air, and thus were precariously suspended on a piece of wood that was eligible to breaking if it were disturbed enough. She thusly stopped her rocking, though she grabbed Alm's arm with such force that it surprised him and rendered his next words lodged in his throat, and he couldn't help but blush slightly as he felt Faye latch onto him.

"Sorry, sorry, but look!" Alm did, following her pointer finger as it stretched towards the sky, seemingly reaching out to grab at one of the stars that danced above them. "I swear, I saw a shooting star," She said excitedly, her eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as they darted back and forth. Alm raised an eyebrow in slight suspicion as his blush faded- after all, it wasn't the first time that one of them had tried to trick the others into believing a tall tale- but followed along regardless.

"Cool. Maybe we'll see another one," He said cautiously, trying to accentuate the note of disbelief in his words as he scanned the sky out of habit and courtesy.

Faye, of course, caught on and puffed her cheeks. "Hey, I'm being serious here! I know this is the perfect time to mess with you, but I'm being one-hundred-percent serious. I swear!" She exclaimed, her eyes narrowing in an accusatory glint at the other boy. Alm held up both his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Okay, okay, I believe you," He said, not prepared for her sudden ferocity in defending her word- something which she hadn't really ever done before, now that he'd thought about it. _Was she always like this?_ He pondered in his mind, before shoving it into the repository called his brain. Another thought came to him in its place.

"What did you wish for then?" He queried. Faye blinked, before her cheeks went beet red and she glanced down, her eyes darting around furiously at the ground. Alm blinked in surprise, and he reached a hand towards the suddenly diffident girl in concern. Faye waved it off.

"A-ah, it's nothing. You just surprised me," She said, uncharacteristically demure as she played with her hair.

He tilted his head, staring at the light-haired girl as she glanced away bashfully, staring at the sky with renewed interest. He didn't remember Faye- rough and tumble Faye, who could and _would_ beat Gray in an arm wrestle, being this… _girly_. Before he can put too much thought into it, however, she spoke up again.

"But, uh, my wish? It was… something silly. Don't worry about it, okay?" She says in what Alm thinks is supposed to be a reassuring tone, but has just the note of desperation that makes him decide against questioning it, yet feeling all the more curious in his oblivion.

"Alright," He said suspiciously, but let the topic drop nonetheless.

He turned back to face the sky and let the silence blanket them both once more. The stars jeered at them, sitting on a branch on a tree, and Alm suddenly felt faintly silly, he and one of his oldest friends simply lazing about when they were supposed to be moving in the morning; further north, to liberate the rest of their continent.

He was about to turn back to Faye to suggest they climb down when she spoke up again.

"What would you wish for?"

It caught him off guard, his mouth frozen in a half-open circle as the words choked his throat. At Faye's expectant look, he swallowed the barricade in his throat and replied. "E-er, sorry?"

Faye chuckled in slight amusement before she quickly refocused herself. "What would you wish for? If you saw a shooting star, I mean," she clarified, her chocolate brown eyes filled with piqued curiosity as she stared at him, awaiting his answer.

Alm cranked his mouth shut, and his brow furrowed. The cogs began to turn in his mind, and he began to ponder. What would he wish for? If he were young, perhaps the answer would be "to find Celica", or maybe something simpler, like "to beat Gray in a duel", but the last few weeks had been a magical event for Alm. No longer were his views twisted to fit the small realms of Ram Village, and gone were any barriers to the world. Now he knew more of the world. The Deliverance. Desaix. Slayde.

And who knew what else?

He rocked slightly on the chair as he glanced up. "Man, that's tough," He mumbled aloud, before delving back into his train of thoughts. There were too many things to wish for. Peace? Prosperity? They were certainly noble goals, but at the same time… Alm pursed his lips.

He wasn't sure if he could call himself noble enough to answer that and _mean_ it.

And something- some strange, little voice in his head- told him he couldn't really lie to Faye.

Faye watched as Alm's eyes glazed over- the signature stupefied look drawing across his face as he launched deep into thought. She'd seen him do it many times before, though it happened most often whenever he had to think up a plan on the fly.

Of course, those times were often in moments where she (and, by extension, Gray, Kliff and Tobin) were panicking heavily from whatever shenanigans they had launched themselves into, so she never could actually get a good look at his rather intense pondering face. Staring at it now, under more… relaxed conditions, as she watched as thoughts figuratively danced in his orbs of dark blue-grey, she noted, much to her embarrassment, that he was still as strikingly handsome as he was when they were both children.

Of course, her embarrassment only compounded when she realized that she'd been studying Alm's face.

And she was doing so in a romantic manner.

Her cheeks set afire once more, and she turned away to stare at their only other companion: the blue-black curtain of their sky, the stars jeering at them. Twinkling in mockery as she lay underneath them on a branch of a tree, seemingly shouting at her how much of a bad idea it was to climb a tree with the boy she loved.

Before she could think any further, however, Alm spoke up, having broken out of his thought-induced stupor.

"That's hard to answer, honestly," He admitted, still staring up at the sky. Faye stared as he paused and furrowed his brow again, watching as he tried to solve a problem of some sort in his head.

Eventually, it spilled from his mouth. "But, I'd have to say… I'd wish for us to all stay together afterwards. As weird as that sounds," He chuckled afterwards, his eyes casting an aside glance towards Faye. Faye tilted her head.

"What do you mean?"

Alm laughed again. "Call me crazy, but… I have a feeling that Desaix won't be the end. It's more like… the beginning. The start of something big. And, for some reason, it feels like… we might drift apart, for some reason," He leaned back, turning to stare at Faye's interested expression. "And I don't really want that to happen. We've been hanging around each other for so long that it just seems strange that one day we might not ever talk to each other ever again. After all, there's nothing really holding us together, now that we're out of Ram Village. There's no stopping, say, you from going back after the war and Kliff from disappearing entirely."

At the astonished look Faye shot him, Alm quickly waved his hands. "It was just an example! _"_ He quickly backpedaled to avoid her ire. Faye's semi-terrified stare lost any sense of edge to it, and impassively motioned for him to continue.

So, continue he did. "Anyway, what I'm trying to get at here is… there's a good chance that we'll drift apart, somehow. In some way. And…" He stifled another nostalgic chuckle. "I'll admit that I'm a bit too selfish to be okay with that. That's why I wished for us to stay together, y'know? So, we'll never have to deal with that feeling. It sounds stupid, I know," He said, deflating slightly as his back slouched, and he stared at the sky once more.

"No."

His orbs of blue-grey turned to meet chocolate brown, and he stared at Faye in both slight bemusement and bewilderment. Her gaze was almost fiery, her orbs hardened to stone as she spoke firmly. Immediately, though, they softened, as though she'd realized how intensely she'd been staring at him, and he felt his cheeks heat slightly.

"I don't think it's stupid, Alm. If anything, I feel like it's pretty noble. Despite what you think," She preemptively cut him off, and he shut his opened mouth. "It's very… you, I guess you could put it," She finished, nodding once as if to affirm it with him- a trait which she'd picked up on a long time ago. Alm smiled slightly.

"Thanks. It feels weird to be complimented on that, though," He admitted. Faye chuckled and shrugged, as she turned to stare back at the sky.

They stayed in relative silence once more, staring up at the twinkling stars and the moon (it was near full tonight, but he never noticed until now. Odd how he managed to miss on the very prominent detail, but he wasn't one to ponder on that too thoroughly).

Stifling a yawn, he heard Faye mumble to herself. It was incomprehensible, but just loud enough for him to overhear her voice.

"What was that?"

Faye stiffened, her back arching to its full height and her eyes suddenly springing to life. "Oh, uh, just me talking to myself," She dismissed, her hand shaking slightly as she readjusted herself on the branch once more.

"About what?" Alm pushed further. Faye frowned, as though she were mulling it over for a few moments, before she turned to give him an aside glance.

"Just about what I wished for. It seems kinda stupid after hearing your wish." She said self-depreciatively, wringing the hem of her skirt in one hand as she steadied herself. Alm shook his head.

"It can't be that bad," Alm argued. "What was it?"

"It's nothing," Faye mumbled. Alm, not to be deterred, pressed onwards. He slided slightly towards Faye, feeling the branch creak underneath him as he edged their balance closer together. Faye shook her head, more vigorously this time.

"C'mon, tell me! It'll just be between me and you, I swear," He said, crossing a hand over his chest as he tried to edge closer to Faye, her brown eyes widening as she tried (and failed) to scuttle backwards.

"Buzz off, Alm!" She couldn't help but laugh, and Alm grinned mischievously as he scooted closer to her, purposefully bouncing on the branch to shake it. Faye shrieked and flailed wildly as the balance shifted once more, but laughed as she managed to shift her balance enough to remain perched on the branch.

Alm, noticing that Faye had dodged his question, decided to proceed further once her laughter had tapered off. "I'm serious! I won't tell anyone at all," He persisted.

Yet despite every other single time that had worked (it always did. Faye was the _worst_ at keeping secrets, especially when it came to keepings secrets around him), it failed. Faye had clammed up entirely, and the smile that she'd been wearing the entire night had vanished entirely. As Alm studied her face, his eyes scanning her visage over, he spotted a note of worry and indecision dancing in her irises.

He frowned and furrowed his brow. "Hey, are you okay? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to-"

"No, no, it's okay," Faye cut him off abruptly, her feet slowly rocking back and forth in the air as she rested her hands on her knees. "It's just…" She took a deep breath, as if to steel herself for something, and Alm's concern only grew.

"I'm serious Faye, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Some things you just don't want to be said, and I won't bug you about it if-"

He was cut off by a harsh snort as Faye inhaled sharply, followed by a choked laugh.

Alm was nearly ready to pull Faye off the branch and head straight to Silque's tent when she spoke, her voice quavering with some sort of unease as she shook horribly from whatever ailed her, which certainly wasn't hypothermia due to the cloak wrapped snugly around her person. "N-no, it's fine. Heheh, I'm just… a bit nervous. I d-don't know why, though. A-after all, it's just a w-wish on a shooting star, n-nothing to be worried about, so-"

Faye went deathly still as Alm grabbed one of her hands. She felt his fingers intertwine around hers, and she watched as Alm's orbs of blue-grey hardened as he stared her directly in the eye.

"Calm down Faye. Don't say anything if you don't need to," He spoke, softly yet strongly. His eyes softened, just a little bit. "It was just for fun, so don't beat yourself up about it, alright?" He murmured.

He watched as she slowly stopped shivering and began to relax, her heartbeat deaccelerating as she slouched over. Once he heard an audible sigh from her, soft and quiet, he gingerly let go of her hand, suddenly feeling horribly aware of the lack of warmth that flowed to his palms.

He suddenly felt awfully self-conscious about the girl perched on the branch beside him. Her presence was suddenly overwhelming, suffocating him in its aura. Every sense he owned fired, alerting him that Faye was still sitting next to him, quietly, and he had no clue what to do about it. He wasn't even sure why they were still on the tree, yet something compelled him to stay. Something gravitational.

But he couldn't figure out what.

She said nothing, yet slowly, ever so surely, he heard the brittle branch begin to crackle. He felt her aura of warmth slowly slide closer, yet he dared not turn away from the night sky's view for fear

Closer.

The atmosphere was almost physically suffocating now: he could feel his throat grow parched, the sweat beads forming on his forehead pooling as it slowly began to accrue. Alm wanted to scream for help- for something to end the awful feeling that swelled in his chest.

Closer.

Soon enough, she was right next to him. As silently as she'd been, her arm snaked out, her hand grabbing at his. He glanced at it for only a moment, before his eyes forcibly returned to staring at the moon, the inviting light twinkling as he was pelted with a slight breeze, the cold sensation feeling like ice against his flushed skin.

After a few, terse minutes, he heard her speak quietly. Barely a whisper, and nearly buried underneath the heat of his ears.

"Hey, Alm?"

Alm turned his head ever so slightly to meet her glance.

"Yeah-?"

And all of a sudden, he realized that she was a lot closer than she was before.

Her eyes were so close that he could see the small patterns and designs in her brown irises, gleaming dimly from the bright moon. Her hair smelt of oranges and other fruits, and her hands were still clasped around his as she narrowed the distance between them even further, her head darting in to close it entirely.

And somehow, as though she were speaking into his ear, as she pressed her lips against his, he understood what her wish was.

He wasn't sure how long it was before they had to separate for air, his chest rapidly expanding and caving as he broke away and huffed for breath, his eyes darting towards Faye and watching as she did the same, her face painted a lurid red as she gasped. He felt at his own cheeks and winced slightly as he felt the burning sensation nip his skin, yet he paid the worrying temperature no mind.

All he could say was one single word.

"Wow."

Faye nodded ever so slightly, her breath still light as her eyes seemingly danced in the night. _Beautiful_ , Alm thought to himself as he stared into the orbs of chocolate brown- an action that he would find himself take many times over for the rest of his life.

 _Just like her._

* * *

When he returned to slumber, he dreamt of oranges and wards. 

* * *

**Final Word Count: 5850  
That's a wrap!**

 **Apologies for being dead; I've just not been able to finish a chapter proper for quite literally anything. Thankfully, the prospect of a deadline is a great motivator for me, and I ended up finishing this just on time.  
Preemptively: I realize that the ending is rushed. However, I completed the story the day before it was due to be submitted, and I didn't have enough time to properly end it in a matter that I myself found satisfactory (though admittedly I blame my horrible work ethic and time keeping skills for that)  
Nevertheless, I hope you could find some measure of enjoyment.  
Now to waste away writing more things in secrecy.  
Ciao!**


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